Have you ever considered having a theme for your landscape? A themed backyard design could pull all the right elements together, and give a very unique aesthetic to your backyard. It can easily become the center of your property, and a place where you can enjoy and relax in an environment that you chose. Today we will discuss some popular themes for a landscape design.
Tuscan Garden
One of the most popular landscape theme is Tuscan gardens. It is so popular that a lot of people are not even aware how much of their current, or future landscape remodeling projects are heavily influenced by famous gardens from Tuscany. Tuscan Gardens are renowned for centuries, since the great gardens of Medici family, to the beautiful gardens of private villas rolling over the hills of Tuscany. The main elements of Tuscan Garden design are: stonework including walls and paths, Mediterranean plant pallet, boxed hedges, terra cotta pots, potted plants, gravel, fountains, and urns. These kind of gardens are extremely popular in South Western states, especially along the coast of California, due to the natural vineyards, and orchards that are present in that region.
English Landscape
Almost as popular as the Tuscan Gardens are the English Landscapes. These are elegant, natural, and extremely beautiful landscape designs that became extremely prominent at the turn of the 20th century. They hark back to the Romantic era aesthetic, abandoning the fear of natural and embracing it instead. It is because of this English gardens tend to encorporate a lot of natural features such as man-made or natural ponds, gazebos, and if you have a large enough property, a grotto. Common elements of this style also include: Recreations of classic buildings, Ruins, Bridges, Benches, Bricks, Thatch, natural stone, cobblestone, and English pots. These kinds of environments are very popular in New England, where cooler, wetter climate is perfect for the kind of plants necessary for a beautiful English garden.
Southwest Desert Landscape
Popular in drier and more arid regions of the South West, this design harkens back to a mix of old Western look, Spanish Colonial architecutre, Native American patterns, and the natural aesthetic of the desert landscape around. Orange, taupe, and light browns are the prefered color themes, white is also popular because it absorbs far less sunlight and heat. Elements for this style include: Native American decor, Terracotta tiles, fountains, Olla pottery, red clay pavers, Natural stone, Plaster, Gravel, Decomposed Granite, Wood, and natural Desert hues.
It is important to choose drought tolerant plants, and use them sparingly in key areas of your garden to emphasize the gaze towards that region. Because green and red tends to stick out in contrast to the color palette normally associated with this style, they make that area “pop-out”.
Japanese Gardens
Japanese gardens invoke a serene, contemplative, and peaceful moods to anyone who wants to visit them. Inspired by Zen Bhuddism, Taoism, and Shinto teachings and emphasize on peaceful meditation, these gardens tend to invoke a quiet, natural place, away from the busy surroundings of modern life. The main focus of these gardens is Nature, and harmonizing with the natural elements around you. Japanese Gardens tend to have four major elements: rocks, water, plants, and ornaments. Japanese gardens also have a very specific layout which include asymmetry, enclosure, borrowed scenery, balance and symbolism. Make sure to select oriental plants, with an emphasis on evergreens.
Although suited for a wide variety of climates, keep in mind that the large element is natural water, be that from rain or plumbing. If you live in drier areas, it would become harder to maintain a Japanese Garden that is full of a lot of plants, or water features. One way of circumventing this problem is to focus the garden on sand mazes, contemplative rocks, and natural gravel.
These are some of the styles that are very popular today. When choosing the type of landscape theme you want to go with, please make sure you have a contractor that is ready to tackle these challenges with you.
